


baby, love me lights out

by ChampagneSly



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 18:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3906280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChampagneSly/pseuds/ChampagneSly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because Sousuke loves Rin with the certainty of the palm that Rin slaps against the wall, loves him with the pride and exultation he feels when he looks at the time on the stopwatch <em>(so fast, so damned good, it’s like a knockout punch</em>). Sousuke loves Rin with the intensity that Rin loves swimming, loves him like the water and the sunshine that bend to his whims.</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby, love me lights out

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from Beyonce's, XO, which is so Sourin I can't even.

There’s no one left but them, standing at the water’s edge of a pool that turns the colors of a slowly setting sun, as Rin assumes the position on the starting block and Sousuke counts down tick-tick-tick to zero. He shouts go with his heart in his throat because the way Rin pushes away from him in a streamlined explosion of power and grace makes him yearn so deeply it aches. Sousuke knows so many of the wonders of Rin’s body, has felt it move and twitch beneath his fingertips, has pressed his thumbs between skin and sinew, but he knows that Rin will never be more wondrous than in moments like this--arcing through air as if he was born to fly before he was destined to swim.

Sousuke’s pulse thunders in time with the seconds on the stopwatch that _go, go, go_ , as Rin comes up from his dive, suddenly free from the depths and tearing through the water like it was paper, like all of it was a gift for Rin to unwrap.

Sousuke knows that it was a gift always meant for Rin to have, knows it down to his bones.

Sunlight breaks around arms and legs that move almost too fast to be real, as Rin hits the wall for his first turn, all perpetual forward motion and boundless determination. The seconds on the timer never stop moving, never stop marking each stroke that takes Rin a little bit closer to his goal, and Sousuke knows that this is it, almost the moment of reckoning.

Because time flies and records were made to be shattered-- and all at once they’re on the verge of Rin being more than good enough to walk away from abandoned practice pools and towards podiums and fulfilling all that _promise_ that Sousuke has loved since he was old enough to love anything at all.  

One-two-three strokes and Rin breathes to the right, one-two-three strokes and Rin breathes to the left. Sousuke holds his breath and wishes he could follow everywhere that Rin is about go. Their time, Sousuke thinks, as Rin comes back to him, still racing towards that final touch that will stop the clock, is running out.

Still, he loves Rin through all the seconds that remain, that separate _right now_ from _very soon_ , because he couldn’t imagine doing anything else, because he can’t imagine being anywhere but right there, watching Rin make all of his dreams come true, burning so brightly Sousuke can’t imagine what it would be like to look away.

Because Sousuke loves Rin with the certainty of the palm that Rin slaps against the wall, loves him with the pride and exultation he feels when he looks at the time on the stopwatch _(so fast, so damned good, it’s like a knockout punch_ ). Sousuke loves Rin with the intensity that Rin loves swimming, loves him like the water and the sunshine that bend to his whims.

“Kiss me,” Sousuke says, bending down next to an empty pool, with daylight wasting and a stopwatch frozen at 50.29 seconds dangling from his wrist. 

Sousuke does not say, _“Kiss me while we still have time,”_ even though the words burn in his throat. Rin looks at him with wide, happy eyes, water streaming down his flushed face and his mouth parted, and Sousuke hopes to have forever, knows he’ll hold on until the lights go out.  

Sousuke bends down and Rin surges forward, pushes up-up-up with the same arms that will win medals one day and kisses Sousuke with lips that taste like chlorine and feel so much like love, Sousuke thinks, “I’d give you everything.”

 


End file.
